JASigning Local Installation

Contents

JASigning Local Installation

JASigning on localhost server

The JASigning software supports web pages containing interactive virtual signing. Such web pages use a release of the software hosted on the same server as the pages themselves. In order to support development of new web pages, for evaluation or individual research, a release of the software, along with some example pages, is provided as ZIP archives:

The files in jas.zip should be extracted and the jas folder and contents placed so it is served from the root of the local webserver. Installations are tagged
with the year, so http://localhost/jas/loc2017
should provide access to a local version of the standard JASigning installation, but with a limited number of avatars.

The files in BSLExamples.loc.zip should be extracted in the same way and the BSLExamples folder placed at the root, and the examples can be viewed from http://localhost/BSLExamples.
In fact the examples site can be renamed and placed at any other location on the local web server as long as the paths
constructed by the startPlayer function in appletframe.html are adjusted to match the chosen location for SiGML files.

Note: The installation does not rely on any special functionality of the web server, which is only required to deliver static content. However, web servers (such as IIS)
may need some configuration in order to serve files with extensions such as .jnlp, .properties, and .sigml. Examination of server logs should reveal whether pages are being blocked or not.

JASigning Examples using the VHG Server

A version of the BSL Examples site is available as a demonstration using the standard VHG installation via CORS.

The files in BSLExamples.zip should be extracted and the BSLExamples folder can be placed on a web server and potentially run from files stored on the local filesystem.
Resources will be fetched from the standard VHG release. It is also possible to use example web pages in the VHG distribution in the same way. The file cwaclientcfg.json must be placed beside the web pages.

Only Firefox will handle pages stored on the local filesystem by default, but placing files on a localhost server will work for major browsers.
Most browsers will not handle XMLHttpRequests for file: URLs as it can be seen as a security risk. However, this limitation can be overcome if desired:

For Chrome and Opera it is necessary to launch the browser with the --allow-file-access-from-files parameter.

On OS X a script can be used to open the application with the parameter. Such a script can replace the binary that is normally launched, opening a copy of the binary with the additional parameter.

On Windows a shortcut can be customised to add the parameter.

For Internet Explorer the software uses an ActiveX object for XMLHttpRequests. It is necessary to set some Internet options. These seem to work: On Advanced tab: Allow active content to run in files on My Computer; On Security tab, in Custom Level: Access data sources across domains.

For Safari install the Develop menu and select Disable Local File Restrictions.

Commercial Use

For enquires about public and commercial use of the software and the virtual
characters Anna and Marc, please email
CMP_VirtualSigning@uea.ac.uk.